The Seventh Rule
by Cythieus
Summary: Ten years after the fall of the World Tree Nia is the leader of Argentum Range Trading Co. and one of the most powerful women in the world, but a rival crew destroyed one of her ships and a payload worth thousands. When it turns out that crew is captained by Rex she comes up with an interesting way for him to work off his debt. Ending Spoilers for Xenoblade Chron. 2. Nia/Rex


**Salvager's Code Rule #7: "Never leave a debt unpaid!"**

The upper level of the Argentum Range Trading company offices was lavishly done with reddish-brown lacquered wood floors covered by soft, large rugs and shelves filled with ledger books and atlases old and new filling the shelves. Other nicknacks occupied the walls and the main desk in the office, things from her travels and memorabilia of old friends: a drawing of the World Tree—the way it used to jut up from the Cloud Sea was prominent on one wall, it ran almost from the floor to the ceiling and was sat inside of a plain gold frame.

All of these things had been in this office for several years now so that they bordered on the mundane. In the world before when her Da and her sister were alive and when he still had money she wondered if they had even lived this well.

Nia was truly a Lady again. Not that the title had ever done much for her in the past. The only person who cared back then was Dromarch, but these days she had the clout to make the title stick and enough Snowbaby Potato Salad to fill a barrel (if she wanted, the stuff tended to get rancid fast).

The Alrest that had been felt more like a long dream than what had actually existed. This new world of rolling rock land and salty oceans as far as the eye could see felt so _natural_. The world kind of hit the ground running and in the absence of lives lost and the haphazard chaos of the aftermath of Malos and the Praetorium there were some seats of power to be filled.

Behind Nia's desk was a door that led into a small cabin she kept, though she had a flat in the city where she preferred to sleep sometimes circumstances saw her needing to stay late at the office and she was too tired to make the trek home and the gondolas that ran through the canal system in the streets stopped at about ten PM. She was rising from her plush chair, the leather creaking as the fabric of her dress as she moved, when someone knocked with considerable force on her door.

She knew the meaty-fisted culprit behind the interruption: "Alright already, Kanid. Get in here and tell me whatever it is you've got for me this time," Nia grumbled, her accent somehow made the disdain her words dripped with more potent.

The door opened and Kanid stepped into view. He was a Urayan who was built like a titan, he had to rotate his large frame at the shoulders just to step through the door of her office. He scanned the room, as if he expected her to be somewhere other than the desk. Dromarch entered at his side, padding along with his blue eyes fixed on her. "My Lady…"

"What the Hell, Dromarch—thought I told you to keep the riffraff downstairs while I'm sleeping," Nia said waving her hand dismissively at Kanid.

Kanid scratched his head. "Miss Echell, we caught the guy you been saying you was looking for," he said.

"You caught him, Kanid? Are you sure it's not Nopon love doll or some other trash you dredged up from the bottom of the ocean, aye?"

"Nu-uh, Miss…"

"It's Lady," Nia interrupted him. "Lady Echell."

"Lady Echell. It's a bloke and he's alive and well," said Kanid.

Dromarch spoke again. "Before this goes any further milady I think it's important to let you know something…"

"Let the idiot explain himself, Dromarch. I don't think he's ever brought me a single tradable piece. If it wasn't for your rich Da you'd have starved to death a long time ago. That right, Kanid?" Nia asked.

Kanid didn't seem to know how to answer, so he reached back into the hall and tugged a man into the room. The man was almost his height, but was smaller and muscular. There was a black sack over his head with a chain holding it around the neck. Another chain linked his ankles and his hands were behind his back.

"Did you chain him up like this?" Asked Nia.

The man in the bag tried to shout something almost the moment that she finished, but his voice was muffled. Kanid socked him in the stomach, cutting him off. "Sure did, Mi-Lady Echell."

"Hmm, I better test the locks on these chains," Nia said, still peering from behind her desk.

One of her company's ships carrying valuables had been attacked by a group of privateers, probably acting under the orders of one of the other guilds or governing bodies.

Dromarch sighed. "You're going to want to have him remove the bag first, My Lady," he said.

"Sure. Do as Dromarch says," Nia told Kanid. "I pay you to sail ships, not make your own decisions," she added.

As Kanid worked, fumbling with the locks and chains around the man's neck, Nia spoke. "Not sure who you think you are, pal," she started. "You owe me about one hundred thousand gold, which is admittedly nothing. But it's the principal of the thing. Heh, I knew a boy once who had this stupid code. One of them was ' _Never leave a debt unpaid_ ', now that I think back on it odd that one didn't rhyme…"

When the black hood came free Nia gasped, crawling up onto her desk and causing her dress to bunch up under her knees. The bruised face of the prisoner before her was the last person she had expected to see and in some ways the one that she hadn't wanted to. The skin around the core in her chest seemed to warm as her golden eyes searched his face, checking and re-checking to confirm it was him.

"Rex…" Nia said.

"Nia—I tried to tell this bloody guy, I didn't attack them. They fired on me first…"

Kanid raised a hand and Dromarch cut in. "Let him speak."

"They fired at you?" Nia asked.

"Yeah, you know me Nia," Rex said, though his voice was deeper now. He was taller and his chin was dotted with stubble. She had know Rex once, but that was years ago.

"I know you? Funny, I feel like we haven't seen each other in going on ten years now," she said.

Rex shuffled forward, his chains rattling. "I figured that you might—I didn't know what you would want…"

"Dromarch, take Kanid downstairs and see that he's paid," Nia said.

"Are you sure, My Lady?"

"Of course I'm sure, leave the keys to his bindings with me. Rex wouldn't hurt me, because he knows what I could do to him," she said stepping down from her desk to take the key from Kanid. Dromarch did as he was told and Nia closed the door behind them.

"Would you mind getting these chains off?" Asked Rex.

"I would…mind that is," she said. "Where's Pyra?"

Rex tugged at the bindings. "Back home. She runs the orphanage now that Corinne passed away." He couldn't seem to really see Nia for Nia, he regarded her with an odd fascination.

"Okay, out with it?" She said.

"You look the same is all," Rex said finally.

"Well, don't let it fool you. I'm over a hundred years old now," Nia said, folding her arms and turning her back on him. Her ears flattened out to the side of her head, twitching slightly in annoyance.

Rex laughed. "I think it's great. I mean you're the same Nia. I didn't know you worked for the guild, though."

"I _AM_ the guild. I try to keep it secret since some people are still pretty untrusting of Flesh Eaters—especially out here in the Argentum Mountain Range," she said.

"You run the guild? Wow, that's amazing," Rex lumbered forward. "I haven't been out here in so long. It's all changed. And look at this office. I suppose I'll have to call you _Lady_ now…" he said.

Nia hissed, sucking on her teeth. "There's the matter of my money, Rex," she said.

"I don't have that kind of scratch on me. And even if I did a ship in your employ fired on me first."

"I believe you, but how does that make me look as a guild leader? Especially when I have a board of directors who can make my life a living Hell," Nia said.

"If you believe me, why are these chains still on?" He asked.

"Because I rather like seeing you tied up," Nia said.

"You can't keep me here, even if you think I'm guilty and I won't pay you have to turn me over to the Magistrate," Rex said.

Nia threw her hands down at her sides, clenched into tight little fists. "I'm not going to turn you over to the Magistrate, you idiot. I'll let you go, I just wanted to see you suffer," she said folding her arms.

"Suffer? What have I done? I ain't seen you since before Zeke became King…" he trailed off.

"You treated me like a joke, Rex. You looked right at me, but you couldn't even see me. And in the end you got everything you wanted. Pyra, Mythra, Hell you found Elysium even," said Nia.

"Is this about Pyra and Mythra? Mythra has been gone for a year now. She writes, but I don't get what any of them have to do with us?"

"I loved you and you chose her. How's that working. Are you married? Should I be expecting a baby announcement in the post?"

Rex shook his head. "We're just friends, me and Pyra. She still tucks me in at night when I'm home. There's nothing to be jealous about and you never really let me know how you felt."

"I told you to your damn face, how can you be so…ugh!" Nia trembled with frustration, turning to walk across the room and find a bottle of strong liquor. She thought the better of pouring it into a glass and decided it to drink it from the source.

Bewilderment passed over Rex's face followed by waves of other emotions as if he were looking back into something that had happened so long ago he almost forgot. He took a careful step forward, the chains at his ankles rattling. "I didn't understand then, Nia. I thought you meant that you loved me as a friend. It didn't seem right to expect anything else from you?"

"Because I'm a blade? Well Pyra and Mythra were you blades too…"

"Because you were different. You were nobility and independent. I mean you never felt like you wanted a simple life and look at you now. You're one of the most powerful women in the world from the looks of it. The Argentum Range Trading Company? There must be a thousand ships in your employ…"

"Eight hundred and sixty-four, but there are dozens of contractors on top of that, so who really knows." Nia answered without really considering the compliment that he was paying her, but at this point she was still pissed. She took another pull from the liquor bottle. "You know see you like this is hard for me, right? That's why I took the last name. Bana's old position was just shadowy enough and distant enough for me to never run into the likes of Master Driver Rex again."

"Really?"

She nodded. "I'm sorry Rex, I can't let you go without something," she said. "Call it a one hundred thousand gold favor."

"A hundred thousand? What is it?"

"You work for me now. Your vessel and your crew are property of ARTC INC. And the second thing is more conditional."

"What's the condition?"

"What are you and Pyra really? Pyra's my friend so I don't want to hurt her."

"We're just friends, but I don't get what that's got to do with your company."

"I want you to..." Nia's face reddened. "Look, the men who want me tend to have some kind of fetish: Gormotti, or small girls, or blades. You're not like that though, Rex."

"You want me to what now?"

Nia placed her bottle on the desk and approached him. She grasped the chain that held the large ring around his neck. "I want you to lick me out. Its been a titan's age since I had it done in earnest and I trust you not to…you know."

"Trust me? I've never done that before and it seems like it'll feel odd," Rex said.

"You're enthusiastic about everything you do and I could teach you. I might even show you some other tricks if you're up to it." Nia locked her door climbed up onto the desk. She motioned for him to come to her. "You don't have to, but you're curious. I see it in your eyes, Rex-Rex."

He shuffled toward her, the chains dragging at his feet. Once he was close enough she took hold of the chain around his neck, pulling it so that he got down on his knees. The muscles in his neck tensed as he swallowed. She caught a glimpse of his Adam's apple beneath the bindings as he went to the floor. "That's a good boy," she said.

"What about the chains?" He asked.

"It's better with them on," Nia said with a chuckle, before rocking her body forward to kiss him on the lips. Over the years she had kissed a few people over her lifetime and she could remember them all vividly. Maybe it was because kissing wasn't the kind of thing that she ever figured she would be doing as a blade or because she had lived longer than a blade should, but Rex's lips were sweet with the juice of some fruit and she could taste the wine from her own mouth intermingled with his.

"Nia," Rex said the moment their lips parted.

She let her legs dangle off of the desk, spread wide open for him with her dress fanning out at her knees. "You better get to work," she said rubbing his cheek with her soft fingers. "You're going to have to work me knickers down with your teeth."

Rex rested his head on her inner thigh, his cheek was warm against her skin. She wanted him to hurry, but she couldn't say. The urgency hurt. She felt it between her legs, the kind of swollen pain that followed the first bite into an orange. He kissed her leg, moving up onto his knees and trying to get his balance. His hands were still bound behind his back and he couldn't open his legs too wide due to the chain.

A lump rose up in the center of her skirt as Rex's head neared the center of her pelvis and pushed the white, breezy fabric up around him. He was almost to the apex, her thighs were touching either side of his face now, resting against his cheeks.

"Um, Nia?"

Her voice was caught in her throat, the thought of what was about to happen was raging through her mind and she almost couldn't wait. Part of her wanted to give the chain hard tug. "Yeah, Rex?"

"What does it taste like?" He asked, trying to hide his apprehension behind a nervous chuckle.

She wondered if she could really answer that without seeming too weird. Like, why would Rex assume she would taste herself and what would he be afraid she was going to taste like? Of course she knew, she licked her fingers after a fair number of times. It sort of happened when the mood took her.

"I doesn't really have a taste. It's like asking me if the inside of my mouth has a taste…"

Rex lifted up so that his head popped up from beneath the skirt. "I mean the inside of my mouth has a taste when I haven't brushed in a bit," he said giving a cheeky little smile.

"You trying to imply I don't wash myself or brush my teeth," Nia growled, shoving his head down.

"No, sorry." Rex's voice was muffled as the skirt passed over his face.

He moved down, down, down between her legs, her skirt catching on his hair more this time so that every now and again a few brown hairs would poke up through the material. This time he just rushed in, trying to at first bite the waistband of her knickers where a drawstring held them up top.

Nia sighed with anticipation as he managed to get the drawstring in a few tugs and then he moved to the bottom where the fabric passed between her legs. He carefully bit at it, barely catching her skin as he did and drew them further down. She brought her legs together as he moved until he was at her feet.

Whipping his head to the side, he tossed the knickers to the side and licked his lips. In the force of the whip motion he almost toppled over, but Nia caught him with her ankles. "I got you. Not gonna let you fall," her voice was breezy. Surely Rex had tasted her now, had seen her—being nude in front of him stripped all of the usual snark away until the barest parts of her were left.

"Rex, are you okay?"

"Yeah. I just can't believe we're doing this is all."

"Is that bad?"

"Nah. It's just this is not how I pictured my day turning out when I rolled out of my bunk this morning." Rex eagerly plunged under her skirt, hungrily sucking at the outside of the soft pink opening between Nia's legs. He tongued over the folds of skin that had blossomed with her arousal and she could feel each line his tongue traced on her body.

The floor of her pelvis tightened, the muscles drawing up into her body as she sighed. "Rex." His name sounded more like her begging. "At the top. Toward the top," she said trying to guide him.

She couldn't see what he was doing, but when his nose pushed into the tuft of bistre just above the opening she knew he would find his mark. His lips grazed the small bulb of nerves and his tongue passed over it in the following moments with the movement of his mouth coaxing a kind of primal purr out of Nia.

A strange heat emanated from the core of Nia's body and it grew hotter with each movement of his mouth. The desk was quicksand and her whole body was melting into the desk beneath her. Rex's face pressed further up further up into, forcing her legs further apart.

Rex kept moving his face against her and it was like he was digging deeper into her; he would pause for only a moment to take a breath . Each exhale rippled across her skin and though the thicket of hair. When he would dig back in his stubble etched little trails of pleasure into her. Her heart quickened and she slung her leg over his shoulder, resting her heel on his back.

The spasms that worked their way through her started as a small thing working in the rhythm established by Rex's tongue and working up to a fever pitch that broke out of her as a high pitch yelp broke out. Something exploded inside of her, wiggling it's way out as seismic waves of euphoria.

She gasped for air, trying to find her voice and remember her place. "Gah, Rex—Rex, I need…" Could anyone outside hear? Did they know? The air smelled like her already, smelled like arousal, but maybe that was just her Gormotti nose.

He brought his head up, rubbing his mouth against his shoulder before answering. "Nia, I'm sorry, did I hurt you?"

Nia shook her head. "I'm—I'm just catching my breath. Maybe we can…do something else?"

"Like what?"

She pulled herself forward, resting her weigh on her elbows and drinking in the air. Her arms were trembling, like she might topple over if she weren't careful. She reached up, pulling her dress down over her shoulders to expose flesh tone, lacy brassiere. Running her index claw down the front of it and severing the fabric so that it fell away and exposed her supple, pale breasts. Her nipples huge and less defined, the skin around the peak maintaining the same color all the way up to the base of the small fleshy nub.

Rex's lips parted, his eyes widening. He instinctively shambled backward, his legs rattling as he worked his knees against the carpet around her desk, causing it to bunch up. With him further away she could see he was hard, the crotch of his trousers was pulled taut around his cock.

"Oh," she finally started. "I think you'll like it."

Nia clambered off of the desk, finding her balance and taking Rex under the chin with one hand to help him stand. She had the key to his restraints at the ready, but decided now wasn't the time. Instead she placed it between her lips for safe keeping. Her hands went into the front of his pants, exploring for the edge of his undergarments before she delved deeper and found the base of his member.

It was warm soft in her palm, his skin was slick with sweat. She removed the key from her mouth and placed it on the desk before she ran her fingers down his length, feeling her way over every vein and wrinkle of skin. Rex's head had dropped back, but she could still see his eyes. They were closed now and he let out a soft sigh. "I see you've learned what a 'one-eyed-monster' is."

She wrestled a chortle down to a smirk. "Just remember where my fangs are going to be any moment now…" Nia jerked roughly at his pants, pulling them undone in the font before extracting his cock over the top of his underwear. It was beautiful; slender and long enough. Not the behemoth of flesh that most men bragged about having, but that was a good thing. Nia dragged hand down it, stopping at the head and playing over the hole with her thumb. His cock had leaked in anticipation of her, it was salivating for her mouth.

"Maybe we'll just call him little Shellhead," she said with a smile.

Rex laughed, but couldn't reply before Nia plunged him into her mouth hungrily.

"Nia…god…" Rex's bent almost buckling as she wrapped her arms around behind him to steady him.

He smelled like the damp leaves outside of the mansion estate where she was first awakened in the dead of fall and tasted like nothing really, but the feel of his skin her mouth was something she had dreamed about many a night during their travels and some nights for years after.

"Rex," she said when she pulled him out of her mouth, something warm dripped onto her breasts and she was sure which of them it had come from. Nia took him back into her mouth, running her lips up and down, dredging up the rawest parts of him through his cock.

Blindly she reached back to the desk, searching the edge for the key. When she had found it, she kept her mouth working on him, slower now as she concentrated on undoing his hands. With his hands free of the cuffs he reached up into her hair, stroking her tan ears with his fingers and causing them to twitch.

He thrust into her mouth softly, rubbing into the side of her cheek and the back of her throat haphazardly with each motion. She had known it wouldn't take much and when his hand touched the side of her face as he pumped into her harder she knew he was nearing his end.

"Nia, please…Nia," Rex strained as he thrust even harder.

Hot, thick cum filled her mouth. She was forced to pull away, coughing as she tried to swallow him. Her eyes were watered over and blurry as she looked up at him with his cock going limp in her hand.

Her tongue flicked out as she laughed, getting the bit of him that had dribbled out. "Does Pyra give you one of those before she tucks you in at night?" Nia asked. Perhaps that was rude of her; she regretted it the moment the final word left her lips.

Rex could only shake his head.

Nia drew him down onto the floor next to her, coaxing him with her eyes until he was sitting there with his pants tangled in the chains at his ankles. She grasped Rex at the wrist, putting his hand to her breast and letting him caress the small mound in his palm. They kissed, his rough, chapped lips pressing hard against hers.

The same kind of fluttery feeling filled her chest that she had before when Rex's mouth was between her legs. Her heart thundered in her ears and she fumbled with his coat, only moving back to draw the weather-worn tank-top up over his head. He climbed into his lap, resting her ass on his still spent cock, feeling the warmth of him pressing into her skirt.

"I've wanted this for a long time, Rex," she said in a soft tone. They kissed again, her claws moving slowly over his chest. His skin tensed with each inch of movement she made. "Don't be a scaredy-cat," she said pinning him back to the rug with a kiss.

"Huh?" Rex said in a small voice.

"I'm still yours," she said as she brought her legs to rest on either side of his lap, straddling him. "I'm your blade Rex; yours to use as you see fit. So that's what I'm wanting you to do."

Nia stared down at him through half closed eyes before she found his cock with her hand. It was swollen again, ready for her. "What do you want?" She asked.

"You."

A small grunt escaped Nia's lips as she arched her back and hitched her hips forward to push him into her. Her body opened to encompass him, the muscles waiting and ready to pull him up inside. Her breathing became panicked and she mouthed his name, but no words came.

Below her Rex pushed himself into her, flattening his feet against the floor and bending her knees, giving her back a place to rest. She pumped her body down onto Rex, grinding into him until his entire cock pushed up inside of her, filling the space between her legs.

She moaned, raking her fingers across her breast, grappling at her nipple roughly. It was finally happening; for a long time she followed Rex and journeyed through hardships with him in search of the promised land. Now what she had been searching for was below her. This was her Elysium.

Their bodies pumped together; it wasn't hard to imagine that they had the same rhythm after the countless battles fought all over the now defunct world of Alrest and with time spent as his personal blade through some of his darkest days. The air hummed with a strange energy that connected them, though not in the way that ether had. His heart beat, the rise and fall of his bare chest, the gyration of his hips against hers—it all fell in sync.

Rex reached between her legs, combing his thumb through the smooth damp hair until he was able to slip inside of her. He drew his back in, arching his chest up with just her weight keeping his pelvis to the floor. His face rolled to the side, his mouth buried in the long fibers of the carpet as he moaned and one of his hands swatted lightly over her chest, coming back to cup one breast.

Nia's driver hadn't lasted long. The final shuddering pumps he sent up into her were wetter and warmer. He flattened against the floor, gasping in air as she continued to work her hips up and down on him. She giggled and said. "There now, wasn't that better?" Her cheeks and chest were red and there were stinging lines across her breasts where she was sure she had scratched herself.

Rex nodded, but it was a while before he spoke. "Best job I ever took," he said.

It wasn't clear what this was going to be or if this was something Rex would even indulge again, but she sincerely hoped that he would. Nia leaned down and gave him a kiss that slowly morphed into a nibble. When she pulled away she ran her claws down his chest, turning the skin red in her wake.

"Best hundred thousand I ever lost," she said rocking her head side to side.


End file.
